May 20 – Homecoming?

Scott Schumaker

Yasue and Ian Schumaker.

With her return flight scheduled, Yasue just needs to clear a few more hurdles before coming home.

Ian and I have received many emails and texts with good news from Yasue since the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami ravaged Tohoku. The one we awoke to this morning might very well be our favorite. If all goes well, Yasue will return to Hawaii on June 1.

It has been more than four months since she left Hawaii to care for her mom. Of course, we won’t measure her time away in months. In fact, we won’t measure it in time at all. The passing of her mother. The earthquake. The tsunami. The aftermath. Those will be what we remember. The time has been a blur. The events will remain crisply in our memory for a long, long time.

About This BLOG

Scott and Yasue Schumaker moved from Japan to Hawaii in 1995. They and their son Ian, 14, live in Kapolei. In mid-January, Yasue unexpectedly returned to her childhood home in Sendai, Japan to care for her ailing mother. She was in Sendai when the devastating 9.0 earthquake struck. In this blog, Scott will share how all 3 family members are coping with the separation amid the chaos and misery of post-quake life in northern Japan. All times in this blog are HST.

Editor's Note:Scott Schumaker, president of our parent company, PacificBasin Communications, has a unique take on the events unfolding in Japan. His wife, Yasue, is a concierge at the JW Marriott Ihilani Resort and Spa. Yasue was in Sendai when the earthquake and tsunami hit and was one of the first people interviewed by CNN. She remains there, looking after her ailing mother and coping with the devastation. In this online column, Schumaker chronicles the experience of one family, both separated and united by disaster.